Mohamad Obeid Hussein

Mohamad was born in Deir Ezzor in Syria, where he attended school until grade nine. His difficult living conditions pushed him to leave his home country at fourteen. He arrived to Lebanon in 2004 for work, and kept going back and forth between the two countries until 2010, after which he completely settled in Lebanon for the last ten years. He dreamed of living in Germany, and worked hard, day and night, to collect money to realize his dream. He worked in a bakery, in Dawra, for years, but moved to work in a bakery at the Port of Beirut four years ago.

Mohamad was a good, decent, and friendly person. He spent most of his time working to put food on the table and support his family. He was brave, trustworthy, and dedicated on the job.

Mohamad got married in 2017, and had three daughters, his youngest was born at noon, on the same day of the horrible explosion.

On the morning of August 4, Mohamad was with his wife who was delivering their daughter. He reported to work at 3:45 PM, and there was a delivery to dock 15 scheduled for 6:00 PM.

Around that time, First Inspector Kayssar Abou Merhej arrived to the manakish bakery, Mohamad asked him if he could give him a lift in his car to dock 15 so he can deliver the order. Kayssar drove him there, and they were on their way back when they drove past warehouse number 12 and the grain silos. Kayssar parked his car by the dock and they both got out.

Kayssar was filming the fire, and Mohamad was leaning on the car watching the flames. A first explosion happened, and all communication with Mohamad was lost… His employer, Khaled, tried to call him for four hours, but there was no answer. Kayssar was found but Mohamad was still missing. At 10:00 PM, he was told that Mohamad was at the hospital, he immediately checked but it wasn’t him. At 2:00 AM someone called Khaled to tell him they found Mohamad's body. Khaled went on site and confirmed it was him.

Khaled compared Mohamad's dead body to a water bag that punctured whenever he touched it. He tried to straighten the body to identify him, and it broke down. He pushed his arm down because it was up on his head and it cut off. The force of the explosion broke all of his bones, there was no way to touch his body.

He remained in place until the next day when he was evacuated to Sacré Coeur Hospital, where he was kept at the morgue for the next five days, until his paperwork was completed. He was then transferred to be buried in his home town.